The San Bruno explosion and ongoing investigations have brought many of the longstanding issues and internal problems at the CPUC into the open. The cozy relationship between Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) and the CPUC was further documented this week with the release of emails obtained by the city of San Bruno.[i]

However, to date, Governor Jerry Brown has ignored the substantial evidence of Chairman Peevey’s autocratic rule, mismanagement, and conflict of interest. His office said in 2012:

Because Gov. Jerry Brown himself has a very, very close relationship with PG&E, and that conflict of interest doesn’t bother him at all.

There are four people at the top of Brown’s administration: Jerry Brown, his wife Anne Gust Brown, and former PG&E executives Nancy McFadden and Dana Williamson.

Brown appointed both these execs in 2011. Nancy McFadden was Senior Vice President and Senior Advisor to the Chairman and CEO of PG&E Corp. Prior to that, she was Senior Vice President for Public Affairs for PG&E Corp. and Pacific Gas and Electric Company.

Dana Williamson was Director of Public Affairs for PG&E.

Dana Williamson was hired as his senior adviser for cabinet and external affairs, and to oversee the governor’s external affairs operation and the administration’s Washington, D.C., office. Last summer, she was officially named as his cabinet secretary, “a job that has traditionally been the second-most-powerful staff position in a gubernatorial administration.”

Nancy McFadden is his executive secretary/chief of staff, his gatekeeper. [ii]

It is incredible that any corporation should have such visible power over a government.

On top of that, when Brown was elected in 2011, San Bruno had just happened. The newspapers were full of the tragedy and the growing scandal over PG&E and the PUC. That continues to this day.

Furthermore, California voters had just defeated PG&E’s Proposition 16 in June 2010. PG&E mounted a campaign, via this proposition, to stop the formation of locally-owned municipal utilities which were cutting into its monopoly.

Who ran that campaign at PG&E? Nancy McFadden.

McFadden also previously worked for Gov. Gray Davis.

Gov. Brown’s connection with utility companies runs deep into his policy initiatives. For example, the high speed rail project he’s pushing will benefit PG&E and Southern California Edison enormously because of the huge amount of electricity it would use.

So, don’t expect Jerry Brown to take any real interest or action on the problems at the PUC. The problems with PG&E and other special interests start at the top in California – in the governor’s office.

[ii] “James M. Humes, who was Brown’s top aide as attorney general, will be one of the most powerful officials in the new administration, along with Nancy McFadden, a former PG&E executive

…Humes, 51, will be Brown’s executive secretary for administration, legal affairs and policy. Humes was Brown’s top deputy in the attorney general’s office and for the last four years has worked closely with Brown and his wife, Anne Gust Brown.

Gust Brown played a major part in her husband’s gubernatorial campaign and will have an integral role in the new administration. Brown appointed her special counsel.